Noah, things to learn from

Plan ahead — it wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.
Stay fit — when you are 600 years old someone might ask you to do something REALLY big.
Don’t listen to critics — do what has to be done.
Build on high ground.
For safety’s sake, travel in pairs.
Speed isn’t always an advantage — the cheetahs were on board but so were the snails.
if you can’t fight or flee, float.
Take care of your animals as if they were the last ones on earth.
Don’t forget we are all in the same boat.
Stay below decks during a storm.
Remember the ark was built by amateurs and the Titanic was built by professionals.
Remember the woodpeckers inside are often a bigger threat than the storm outside.
Don’t miss the boat.
No matter how bleak it looks there is always a rainbow on the other side.
When God shuts the door on this world for the last time, make sure you are on the right side.

Norris, Alfred

Alfred Norris died in 2003, at the age of 89. He had spent 72 years actively working for the things of God. He was a man of great energy and extraordinary genius — having a flair for languages, which was put to good use in the service of gospel proclamation. In 1936 he organized the first Vacation Bible Campaigns, which for the first time brought the Truth to villages and towns throughout Britain. This enterprise led to the formation of the Christadelphian Bible Mission, which led the way in bringing the gospel to many other countries. Alfred Norris was active in this work for years, being the first editor of the Bible Missionary magazine.

In addition to numerous small pamphlets and magazine articles, his published writings include:

Acts and Epistles Apocalypse for Everyman On Reading the Bible Believing the Bible Understanding the Bible Preaching the Word Gospel of Mark The Holy Spirit and the Believer Today “I Believe”: A Personal Confession of Faith Peter — Fisher of Men What is His Name? The Ten Commandments for the Twentieth Century The Things We Stand For

Now hiring

Today, if we want additional laborers, we might, among other things, place an ad in the newspaper in the “Help Wanted” section. If we did the same thing for disciples of Christ, how would it read?

HEAVY LADEN? SEEKING REST? MY YOKE IS EASY, MY BURDEN IS LIGHT!

HELP WANTED: Master in search of faithful, full-time assistants. Only serious applicants need apply. Growing company of believers seeks eager, searching individual for position of disciple.

JOB REQUIREMENTS: Applicant must be faithful, hard working, dedicated and of high moral character. Also, servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Must exhibit the following characteristics: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

POSITION: Many opportunities available depending only upon skills and desires of applicant. No limitations based on income, social status or standing, language skills or physical abilities. No high school or college education required. Former work experience for sin will be cleaned up on first day on the job.

JOB ENVIRONMENT: Hours are 24 hours a day, seven days a week. No vacation or holidays. Once the job has begun, applicant must not turn back or the latter end may be worse than the first. Applicant must be willing to endure trials. No experience necessary.

TRAINING AND TESTING POLICY: Applicants must be willing to endure our strenuous training and testing. Will not test beyond what applicant is able to bear. Plus extensive and inspired training manual provided. Manual is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the trainee may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

ADVANCEMENT: Advance quickly from hopeless sinner to justified saint. Not merit based. It is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed.

DISCRIMINATION POLICY: There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. No discrimination toward former servants to sin. All welcome.

BENEFITS: Wages — none. Gift — priceless. Benefits include large and loving family, redemption, forgiveness from sins. Unequaled retirement plan.

(KT)

NT book summaries

Mat: Christ, Son of Abraham, and David’s Son and Lord according to promise
Mar: Christ the Servant of his Father, and the Meeter of man’s need
Luk: Christ the Son of Man in His service amongst men
Joh: Christ the Son of God in the moral glory of His person and ways

Act: Christ in heaven, and the energy of the Holy Spirit on earth

Rom: Christianity unfolded
1Co: Church order and discipline
2Co: Christian ministry and superiority over all circumstances
Gal: Christian blessing contrasted with law
Eph: Christ the measure of Christian standing and blessing
Phi: Christian experience
Col: Christ and his glories — the Church’s Head
1Th: Christ’s coming for the eternal blessedness of His people
2Th: Christ’s coming for the eternal judgment of unbelievers
1Ti: Church order according to God
2Ti: Church disorder and the individual pathway
Tit: Christian qualifications for ministry, and godly conduct
Phm: Christian love counting upon love between brother and brother

Heb: Christ the Apostle, Sacrifice, Priest, and Witness
Jam: Christian morality in and out of the church and Synagogue
1Pe: God’s righteous government in relation to the saints
2Pe: God’s judgment upon the public Christian profession
1Jo: Christ the eternal life and power of communion with God
2Jo: Christ and the Truth the safeguard against heresy
3Jo: Christian hospitality to the saints, especially to laborers
Jud: Christian apostasy traced down to the last days

Rev: Christ assuming the government of the world

NT manuscripts

The oldest NT mss were written on papyrus (from which “paper” derives); it was made by taking strips from the papyrus plant, which still grows near the Nile and in northern Galilee. These strips were laid side by side vertically. Then horizontal lines of strips were laid across them, and the two layers were glued together. Writing was done primarily on the horizontal strips, though sometimes the back of the page was used.

The books of the NT were written on papyrus for perhaps the first three centuries. Since this material was so fragile, most of the papyrus mss of the NT books perished long ago. But in the dry sands of southern Egypt, some of these have been found during the 20th century. There are at present (1986) 35 Greek NT papyri from the 3rd century… and two copies of John’s Gospel from about AD 200!

In the 4th century the shift was made pretty much from papyrus to vellum (skins of young animals). The NT mss from the 4th to the 9th centuries are called “uncials”, lit “inch-high”, because they were written in large, square capital letters.

Mss from the 9th to the 15th centuries are generally “minuscules”, because they were written in small letters. They are also known as “cursives” (running), because they were written in a running script. We have about 2,400 cursive NT mss, as against about 270 uncials.

(“Codex” refers to a bound book, as opposed to a scroll.)

NT punctuation

The Greek language has a system of punctuation marks somewhat similar to ours. Originally, this was not so; there was no punctuation, and moreover, the writing was not separated into words. (“The oldest Greek mss had no chapter and verse divisions, no punctuation marks and hence no separation into sentences, and not even any separation between words. All they have are line after line, column after column, page after page, through a whole book of the NT”: Earle, “NIV: Making of Contemporary Translation”)

Translators, therefore, are not bound to follow the punctuation which they find in their mss. Scott also tells us that punctuation marks were first introduced in the days of Jerome (c 400 AD), who translated the Bible into Latin.

Translators must therefore look at the possible meaning of a phrase as if all the punctuation marks were ignored.

The best example of this “complication”, at least to Christadelphians, is Luk 23:43, where the AV translates “Verily I say unto thee, Today thou shalt be with me in paradise”, but a much more appropriate translation might be: “I say to you today, You shall be with me in paradise.”

But other instances may be found. For example, the AV translated Luk 16:22,23 as: “The rich man also died and was buried. And in hell he…” William Tyndale (1525) translated this as: “The rich man died and was buried in hades.” Likewise, the Douay (Roman Catholic) version (1582) read: “The rich man died also, and was buried in hell” (Harold Hughes, Sh 85:5:7).

NT text, reliability

With perhaps a dozen exceptions, the text of every verse in the NT (written 1,900 years ago) is so far settled by scholars that any dispute as to its readings must relate to the interpretation of the words, rather than to any doubts respecting the words themselves.

But in every one of Shakespeare’s 37 plays (all less than 400 years old) there are probably a hundred readings still in dispute, a number of which materially affect the meaning of the passages in which they occur.

Num, overview

Author: Moses (date of writing: c 1440-1400 BC).

Period: c 1440-1400 BC.

Title: The English title is taken from the Latin translation (Numeri) of the Greek word Arithmoi, the title given to this book in the Septuagint. The traditional Hebrew title, “be-midbar” (“In the wilderness…”), is taken from the opening phrase of the book.

Summary: Numbers is the fourth book of the Pentateuch. It is a historical book, and its Greek and Latin names reflect the fact that two censuses of the Israelites are recorded in Numbers. The Hebrew title more closely reflects the contents of the book, which primarily tells of the rebellion of the Israelites in the wilderness after the exodus from their bondage in Egypt. Because of this rebellion, only two of the adults leaving Egypt were to enter into the promised land of Canaan. The book covers a thirty-eight-year period.

If the book were considered only as a historical record of the wanderings, then much of its message would be missed. One major theme throughout: God’s character is demonstrated in His dealings with His people — for example, His complete holiness in the incident of Moses smiting of the Rock to produce water (Num 20:7-13), and His righteous jealousy in Num 25:1-13. His justice can be seen in the establishment of the covenant of peace with Phinehas. His faithfulness is shown in Num 23:19. He established a covenant with Israel, and the events of this book show His faithfulness to that covenant even in the face of adversity from His people.

Numbers has the first of many instances when God’s people choose to ignore Him and to worship other “gods”. This reveals that God will punish wrongdoing but be merciful to those who seek to follow His laws. In Num 16:1-50, God punished the rebellion of Korah, Dathan and Abiram, but accepted Moses’ atoning intervention.

Numbers shows that God has established high standards, and He expects His people to maintain them. At the same time He is just and merciful, and He is faithful to His covenant. He continually dwelt with His people during their wilderness wanderings. The declaration made in Exo 29:45-46 is repeated in Num 35:34 — God dwells with His people. He leads them (Num 9:15-23) and He delivers them from adversity (Num 21:1-54). It is only proper that He expects faithfulness in return.

Num 1:1 — 10:10 Practical instructions for the wilderness journey.

1:1-54 The census
2:1-34 Positions of tribes during the journey
3:1 — 4:49 Duties of the priests
5:1 — 7:89 Various offerings
8:1-26 Consecration of the Levites
9:1 — 10:10 The Passover and God’s guidance

Num 10:11 — 12:16 From Sinai to Paran

10:11-36 Moving camp
11:1-35 The people complain
12:1-16 Miriam and Aaron

Num 13:1 — 20:13 At Kadesh

13:1-33 Spying out the land of Canaan
14:1-45 God’s displeasure
15:1-41 Various laws
16:1-50 Korah, Dathan and Abiram
17:1-13 Aaron’s rod
18:1 — 19:22 Duties of the priests, and various laws
20:1-13 Moses’ error

Num 20:14 — 22:1 From Kadesh to Moab

20:14-21 King of Edom
20:22-29 Death of Aaron
21:1 — 22:1 Opposition to Israel

Num 22:2 — 32:42 The Plains of Moab

22:2 — 24:25 Balak and Balaam
25:1-18 Punishment for sin
26:1-65 Another census
27:1-11 Further laws
27:12-23 Joshua — Moses’ successor
28:1 — 30:16 Further laws
31:1-54 War against the Midianites
32:1-42 Some settlement

Num 33:1 — 36:13 Sundry Matters

33:1-56 Summary of journeys
34:1-29 Settlement in the land
35:1-24 Cities of refuge
36:1-13 Concerning inheritance within the tribes of Israel

1,260 / 1,290 / 1,335 days

ChristadelphianBooksOnline The Agora Bible Articles and Lessons: 1-9

The 3 1/2 “times” or years of Dan 12 is identical with the 3 1/2 “times” of Rev 12:14, which in turn appears to be identical with the 42 months of Rev 11:2 and the 1,260 days of Rev 11:3; 12:6. It is evident that all these prophetic time periods use a month of 30 days. Thus, 3 1/2 years = 3 1/2 x 12, or 42 months = 42 x 30, or 1,260 days.

Daniel, in Dan 12, is being told what will befall his people (Dan 12:1) in the Last Days. Much (all?) of Daniel plainly has to do with the fortunes of the holy people Israel (v 7) and their special holy place (v 11; Dan 9:24-27). Therefore it is reasonable to assume that the time periods involved in the angel’s answer to Daniel’s “How long?” (v 6) will conform to the Jewish calendar.

Key factors in the Jewish calendar

When the Jewish calendar is analyzed, it is found that there are three very special times each year. These are the three times that the men of Israel were commanded to appear before the Lord (Exo 23:14-17). The feast of unleavened bread, following the Passover, was a 7-day period in early spring (Abib 14-21). The feast of harvest, or first fruits, which the NT calls “Pentecost” (Acts 2:1), came 49 days (seven weeks), or the 50th day (hence “Pente-cost”), after the day following Passover (Abib 15), and thus approximately 45 days after the end of the feast of unleavened bread (Abib 21). The calendar date was usually between Sivan 3 and Sivan 5. The small discrepancies here arise because sometimes Jewish months were 29 days long and sometimes they were 30, and sometimes days were counted inclusively (ie counting the beginning and ending days) and sometimes they were counted exclusively (ie not counting the beginning and ending days). Finally, the third time of general gathering came in early fall. This was a 21-day period commencing with the Feast of Trumpets (Ethanim 1), continuing on to the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) (Ethanim 10), and culminating in the Feast of Ingathering, or Tabernacles (Ethanim 15-21).

The seven annual holidays, called “holy convocations”, all fall within these three times (Lev 23:4-43). They are: (1) Abib 14 = Passover; (2) Abib 21 = The last day of Feast of Unleavened Bread; (3) Sivan 3,4, or 5 = Pentecost; Feast of Firstfruits; (4) Ethanim 1 = Feast of Trumpets (also called Rosh Hashanah: New Years Day); (5) Ethanim 10 = Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur); (6) Ethanim 15 = The first day of Feast of Tabernacles; (7) Ethanim 21 = The last day of Feast of Tabernacles. Many significant events in Israel’s Bible history, far too numerous to list here, occurred on these special days. Other days in the Jews’ annual cycle were relatively unimportant.

Relevant to this discussion are the following points:

From Abib 21 (the last day of the Passover “cluster”) to Ethanim 21 (the last day of the Tabernacles “cluster”) is exactly 1/2 year.
From Ethanim 21 to Abib 21 is, of course, exactly 1/2 year also.
Thus, a time period that begins with either Abib 21 or Ethanim 21, and runs precisely 3 1/2 years, will end on the other of the two.
A time period beginning Ethanim 21 and ending Abib 21, with another 45 days (1,335 less 1,290) added on, would climax at the third significant date in the Jewish calendar (Sivan 3, 4, or 5) — Pentecost.
A 30-day period is the difference between the 1,290 days and the 1,260 days.

The extra 30 days

The Jews generally added an “intercalary” 13th month to their calendar (a sort of “leap-month”) every third year or so. This was done to keep their calendar in line with the seasons, since their months were either 29 or 30 days, and thus their ordinary year was only about 354 days. The “shortfall” of 11 1/4 days added up each year, so that every third year (or more precisely, 7 years out of every 19) an extra month was needed. So, assuming that a 3-year period would necessitate one intercalary month, we have the reason why 3 1/2 years of 30-day months (ie 1,260 days) becomes 1,290 days — the addition of precisely one month. Using a 30-day model, then, there are exactly 1,290 days from the end of the Tabernacles “cluster” of holy days (including Yom Kippur and the week-long Feast of Tabernacles) to the end of the Passover “cluster” of holy days (including the week-long Feast of Unleavened Bread) 3 1/2 years later. And another 45 days (for a total of 1,335) brings us to the final “holy convocation” day, and the third “general assembly” of the year — Pentecost.

Significance of the feast dates

Given the backdrop of Jewish feast dates, it is interesting to speculate on how God may be using these particular feasts as key points in His timetable for the final deliverance of Israel in the Last Days:

a.	The Tabernacles “cluster” begins with the Feast of Trumpets (Lev 23:24). The blowing of trumpets is especially associated with the proclaiming of the Law of God (Neh 8:2; Exo 19:16,19; Amo 3:6,7), but particularly with respect to warnings to Israel (Eze 33:1-6; Num 31:6; Jer 4:19; 1Co 14:8). It could be the beginning of the events introduced by the trumpets in Rev 8 and 9, which depict punishments upon Israel.
b.	This “cluster” also includes the Day of Atonement (Ethanim 10) — a day of national soul-searching and repentance (Lev 16:29,31; Psa 81:3,4,8,13,14; Isa 58:1-6; Joel 2:15). The time of Jacob’s last great trouble (lasting 3 1/2 years) could also be the time of the “Elijah” prophet’s preaching to Israel and his call for repentance (Rev 11).
c.	The Feast of Tabernacles (Ethanim 15-21) could begin, during the 3 1/2-year period, the final in-gathering of Israel.
d.	Passover (Abib 14) could mark the beginning of Israel’s deliverance from their oppressors, as has been the case (in limited ways) so many times in the past.
e.	The end of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Abib 21) could be the time when Israel ceases to eat “the bread of affliction” (Deu 16:3). From this date forward “the abomination that maketh desolate” would be removed from the Land and the Holy Place (Dan 12:11).
f.	The earlier Pentecost (in Acts 2) was the time of the bestowal of the Holy Spirit upon the believers. But the ultimate fulfillment of Joel 2:28-32 (quoted that day by Peter) remains for the future. Here could be the final salvation for the remnant of Israel; therefore, “Blessed is he who waits, and comes to the [end of the] 1,335 days” (Dan 12:12).

Conclusion:

g.	All three time periods slip neatly into the Jewish calendar, incorporating the three great assemblies, and all 7 special “holy convocation” days. It would be practically impossible to produce such an arrangement with any set of numbers other than 1,260, 1,290, and 1,335. Either this is the most extraordinary coincidence, or we are being directed to interpret Daniel 12 with the Jewish calendar in mind.
h.	The appropriateness of these time periods to the Jewish calendar is a very strong argument in favor of their literalness. On the other hand, any scheme of interpretation that turns the 1,260, 1,290, and 1,335 days into like numbers of years loses all possible connection with a literal calendar, and prompts the question: ‘Why these numbers?’
i.	The nature of these periods in Daniel has ramifications for Rev, where identical periods (and implied Jewish applicability) provide the “backbone” of the Book. Thus, Rev can be seen to involve a literal period of about 3 1/2 years, which involves Israel especially, and which culminates in the return of Christ and the establishment of God’s Kingdom.

11 things you didn’t learn in school

ChristadelphianBooksOnline The Agora Bible Articles and Lessons: 1-9

Rule 1.	Life is not fair; get used to it.
Rule 2.	The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you actually to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about it.
Rule 3.	You will NOT make $50,000 a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice president with a car phone until you earn both.
Rule 4.	If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. He doesn’t have tenure.
Rule 5.	Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it “opportunity”.
Rule 6.	If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault. So don’t whine about your mistakes; learn from them.
Rule 7.	Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you are. So before you save the rain forest from the “parasites” of your parents’ generation, try cleaning up the “toxic waste dump” in your own room.
Rule 8.	Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades; they’ll give you as many chances as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9.	Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off. Very few employers are interested in helping you “find yourself”. You have to do that on your own time.
Rule 10.	Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to their jobs.
Rule 11.	Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.